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SANDS' C. CARPENTER AND WILLIAM A. PETERS, OF CLIFTON PARK, NEW YORK; SAID PETERS ASSIGNOR TO SAID CARPENTER.

SLUICE-GATE FOR LOCKS.

Specification of Letters Patent No. 5,611, dated May 30, 1848.

To all whom t may concern:

Be it known that we, SANDS C. CARPEN- TER and VILLIAM A. PETERS, of Clifton Park, in the county of Saratoga, in the State of New York, have made a new and useful Improvement in the Manner of Constructing Sluice-Gates Used in the Lock-Gates of Canals, and we do hereby declare that the following is a full and exact description thereof.

Our sluice gates, or valves, are formed of cast-iron, and consist of two segments of hollow cylinders, which turn on pivots in a manner somewhat resembling those for which Letters Patent of the United States were granted to George Heath, dated on the 14th day of December, in the year 1841. In constructing his sluice gates he proposed sometimes to use a segment of a hollow cylinder, consisting of about one-half of such cylinder, and he sometimes divided his sluice gate into two parts, in which case each part consisted of about one-eighth of a cylinder, each of these parts being so hung upon pivots at their ends as that when closed the middle of each segment was opposite, or nearly so, to the pivot on which it turns.

In our improved gates, we use two segments of hollow cylinders each consisting of about one-fourthl of such cylinder, and these we cause to turn on pivots at their ends, as in Heaths, but we so place these segments that their convex sides shall stand in directions the reverse of each other; when closed, their cross section, instead of representing Va single convex surface, or two convex segments having their convexities in the same direction, will consist of two quadrant sections of hollow cylinders having the conveXity of one of them, and the concavity of the other toward each side of the lock-gate. Under this arrangement the action, or pressure, of the water will be equalized, its tendency to open one segment and to close the other, as it rushes through, being equal in all positions, which is not the case when the two segments have their convexities in the same direction, the force with which the water tends to open, or to close them varying progressively on each of them as they are opened or closed.

In the accompanying drawing, Figure 1, is a view of a lock-gate, having our sluicegates therein, and represented as closed. The

sluice-gates are shown as extending from one post of thel lock gaterto the other, but they may be made to occupy any portion of this distance. Fig. 2, represents a vertical section of the lower part of the gate inthe ments. The ivots, C C', are sustained b P a Y an iron casting which consists of a plate, D, D, that is let into the inside of the posts, and is flush with them; upon these there are twosegrnentpieces E, E, cast therewith and adapt-ed to the curvature of the insides of the cylindrical segments. This casting is shown separately, and in perspective, in

.Fig. 3, the plate part, D, D, of it being let into the post. This part we have made an inch and a quarter thick, and the segment pieces, E, E, rise three-fourths of an inch above the plate D.

The convex side of the sluice gate, B, and the concave side of that, B', are shown as being placed toward that side of the lockgate shown in the drawing. It is most advantageous so to place them, to enable the rod by which they are opened and closed to operate on the arm, F, which extends out from the upper segment.

The rod, or bar, G, G, by which the sluice gates are opened and closed may be drawn up, or forced down, in any of the modes now used for that purpose.

To the arm, F, which revolves the upper gate, is jointed the curved arm, H, attached to the lower gate at its end H', the two gates being thereby made to open and close simultaneously. Where the two gates meet, as at a, a, they are made to lap upon each other, for the purpose of making a close joint, as shown in the drawing.

I, I, are concave pieces which extend along the opening that receives the sluice gates, their concavity being such as to adapt them to t-he cylindrical segments, B, B'. These we usually make of wood, but they may be of iron; we, however, prefer the former.

.- the bars,b, b, while they come into close contact with them when the gates are closed.

'The outer surfaces of the cylindrical seg-` ments have `or the upper vone a radius of nine inches and for the lower lone ya radius of eleven inches only, while from the manner in which the segment gates used by Heath are constructed and operate, they require more than double that radius. Ourv seg-,

ments Vare therefore readily contained within f the thickness of the posts, A, A, and the purchase, or leverage, by which they are moved is much greater than as heretofore made,

and that Without allowing any part of the apparatus to project to an inconvenient distance beyond the face of the lock-gate.

Having thus, fully described thenature of our improvement in the manner of constructin the sluice gates of canal locks, and shown t e operation thereof, it is to be understood that what we do claim as new, and desire to secure by'Letters Patent, isvThe manner in which we have combined and arranged such gates, as herein set forth; that is to say, we claim the placing of two quadrant segments of a hollow cylinder, -with their convex sides in reversed'direc-y tions, said segments being arranged, and operating substantially in the manner, and for the purpose, herein set forth.

SANDS C. CARPENTER. WILLIAM A. PETERS.

; Witnesses: e

Y THOMAS M. PETERS,

THOMAS 'D. PETERS. 

